larz1
Koi Kichi
Nov 2, 2005, 3:47 AM
Post #11 of 11
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Re: [Mark] TT brainstorming. Comments welcome.
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Well, Fall is in the air (we had another frost last night) and it is time to put my "low tech TT brainstorm" to bed for the winter and report the final results.
Each respondent to my little idea had good points to make, and in one fashion or another everyone was right about something. But even the downside cautions about detrius collecting in the media turned out for the good after all.
To refresh the whole issue, my pond (2500 gal) is fed by a long stream bed filled with rocks and pebbles and a few small catch pools with plants for additional aeration and biofiltration. My idea was to use the 1st 20' of the stream like a modified TT by filling the bottom with lava rock for biomedia topped with pea gravel to act as a UV shield for the biobacters growing in the lavarock beneath.
Even though my water circulation was woefully inadequate (1000gph to aerated submerged media filter and waterfall + 1000 gph to stream) the overall results were impressive to say the least.
The water quality I began with was already good and I never had any deterioration, even during the hottest period of summer. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all stayed at zero throughout 90+ degree days and several hundred fry feeding heavily along with the adults the pond was originally designed for (2500 gallon pond, 120" adult koi, 3 6" algae eaters, +app 200 2" fry at the time the experiment began).
I did have to add a few mat filters to the head of the stream to minimize detrius, but some naturally gets through not to mention the issue of frogs, songbirds, squirrels, etc. that think the stream is there for their drinking, bathing, breeding and so on, each of which add their own dander and dirt to the mix.
I have made it a point to leave the rock undisturbed throughout to see how it would do left to its own designs until today. Preparing an indoor winter tank for the remaining fry (2 dozen, we adopted the rest out) I went to retrieve some biomedia from the stream to seed my indoor biofiltration and much to my surprize I found out why the lava rock never plugged up. My biostream has become a breeding ground for red worms .
Moving the gravel aside and scooping up some lava rock I noticed very little detrius and in a space no bigger than 6" square I found 3 young worms living among the lavarock. Apparantly, whatever detrius is accumulating is being consumed by them for food and what little they pass as excrement is quickly broken up and consumed by the biobacters and plants. I also have the fringe benefit of home grown worm snacks for my koi .
It is an interesting recycleing system if you think about it. Fish food converted to excrement converted to worm food who are in turn converted to fish food!
At the end of the day I have to say it was a very successful experiment with unexpected bonuses. As I do some expansion and remodeling this winter I will definitely be incorporating this right back into the system along with a few upgrades and improvements.
Much thanks to Mark, GC, Oz, John, (and anyone I may have inadvertently forgotten) for your helpful input and advice.
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) I'm trying to comfort myself by thinking "low tech". 
. I especially like your point on using configuration to create flow breaks and more oxygenation. The more ripples I can create the better so I'll be sure to sculpt the bed to create more eddy's in the current. 
. My existing system works pretty well most of the time as is, but we're planning to make some changes that will add approx. 2,000 gal. to our volume so I'm trying to add more Bio in advance of future need